Run construction - Is wood fencing secure enough?

[trailrider330]

Up until now, our chickens have always free-ranged; however, I have decided that I am in need of a few runs to keep some breeds separate during breeding season. They would be locked in the coop at night and we are not planning on using automatic coop doors.

My first thought was to purchase some kennel panels, cover the lower 2-3 feet with hardware cloth, bury an additional 1-2' of hardware cloth under ground to deter diggers, and cover the top to keep out birds of prey. I figure the whole set up could run me about $1500, unless I get lucky and find what I need on CL, but I have been searching for almost 6 months with no luck.

However, I recently came across some new, 6' high x 8' long, wood stockade fencing, similar to what is pictured below, for an awesome deal. I would still bury hardware cloth around the base to keep out predators, and then cover the top to keep out birds of prey. This set up would save me a significant amount of money (almost $1000.00).

Based on what I have seen on BYC, some people strongly caution against using this because "predators can chew through the side". If that is the case, then shouldn't we all have to worry about predators chewing through our coop walls as well?

What are your thoughts? Pros? Cons?

 

[Blooie]

I've been extremely happy with our hoop run. Steel fence posts pounded in on each side, cattle panels arched between them, covered with chicken wire and hardware cloth about 2 feet up as an apron folded outward at the bottom and approximately 2 feet out. Cattle panels are cheap, expandable, and easy to work with. If I had the space, even on our limited budget I would be able to put up multiple runs for more than reasonable costs. You can vary the width of the run by how close you put the fence posts on each side. We added a little white vinyl lattice because it looks pretty and since our setup is in town and visible from the street on two sides (corner lot) we didn't want an eyesore cobbled up there.

The original run was 3 cattle panels long. This summer we expanded it simply by taking off the end piece, adding another fence post on each side, arching a new cattle panel between them, covering as we did the original section, then wiring the complete end piece back on. Easy, peasy. And not at all expensive! One of us stands on each side of it in the spring and we toss a roll of landscape fabric over the top as shade and rain protection. Yep, it does really cut down on water in the run - ever try to water plants newly planted in that stuff? Notice how the water pools in all the little folds and just sits there? Well with the landscape fabric in the arch, most rain runs right off rather than soaking in. And since it's air permeable, we don't worry about tarps holding in the heat in summer. In the winter we use clear plastic over the hoop for winter protection. Works so well I can brood chicks out in the run even when it's in the teens and twenties.

Snow load and wind hasn't even fazed it, and living in Northern Wyoming that's saying something..




Raising chicks in their pen within the run, visible on the left. The run is covered with clear plastic at this point for the winter season.


All of the photos above are the original run, before expansion. The landscape fabric was attached and wound around predrilled metal lath strips, found at Lowe's, so any of the sections can be rolled up like window shades.



These last two photos are of the expansion. The first one is how the end cap came off - it was just wire welded fence piece, covered with chicken wire. As you can see, it came off in one piece with the chicken wire, hardware cloth skirt and apron intact. We love this run, have had no problems with it, and even better we could afford it!

 

[teach1rusl]

Pens built off your barn will cut down on cost if you build them yourself, since you only need three walls and a ceiling...two walls on one or two if they're in a row. We built our original run on the back of one of our garages/outbuildings. Here's the view from the backside of the run...how we "mounted" it to the wall of the building.

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I don't know how many birds you'll be placing in each run, but lets just say you did 8x8 areas (standard 2x4s). That would be very simple...especially doing several in a row. Our biggest run is 16 x 36, and is totally covered with 2x4 welded wire. This pic is from when we first built it. You can see how easily we could divide it into several 8x16 pens.

Because of the 16 ft. depth, we actually sunk landscape timbers (cheap posts) at 8 ft. intervals. Then I built 8 ft panels (6 ft. height) that we just screwed into place. But if the runs were just 8x8...or even 8x10 if you used 10 footers, then just 2x4 frames screwed together would work great. Frame a door into each back panel...

We used welded wire everywhere, including "ceiling", and then just overlapped 24" of HW cloth along the bottom perimeter of the walls. I just tacked on a skirt of welded wire...didn't bury. It's worked for us. We have lots of red tail hawks here...those and stray dogs are our biggest daytime predator. But our yard/property is fenced, and we have our own dogs, so that keeps 4 legged predators away. We do have lots of coyotes, but they never come in close. Raccoons are prevalent too, but other than babies, I've never seen adults out in the daytime.

Anyhow, hope this helps. We've got three coops, and did each run a little different.

 

[teach1rusl]

This is our serama coop, and we did the run very similarly to the big run I posted already. This run is only 8 ft. deep, so much easier to build (if not roofed at least...lol).

And lastly, here's our smallest run. The run was built independently of the housing, with the one end not wired, and then just set next to the housing and screwed in place. This is the only run I used all HW cloth on, and that's because it's small, only 4x6 (wired the space below the housing for more space). Individual units set side-by-side would be doable for your situation too...

 

[Hokum Coco]

weasels are out during the day by me.... this was about 20 ft from the house

...lately I have only seen dead weasels, good kitty

Weasel killed everyone of my homing pigeons over the winter Now my loft is as tight as a bottle and as long as a remember to shut the door at night things should be different. They are blood thirsty predator in a chicken coop and have no mercy.

 

[Molpet]

Wow! How did you get lucky, or unlucky, enough to not only see one during the day, but be able to snap a picture of it? I have never seen one around here, but I know they are there.

What evidence does a weasel or mink leave behind so you know that's what it was that got your birds? Do they kill in a manner similar to racoon, or do they have their own MO?

I seen the weasel running across the yard and at first thought it was a weird chipmunk . I chased it to the tree, where it posed for me LOL...the photo was taken with my cheap cell phone so I was 3 ft away from it at most. they are very bold around here...There is a wildlife rehaber up the creek and a forest preserve down the creek that runs through my place. So I have tons of wildlife and useless to kill them because more will show up.

They usually kill everything they can, not just what they will eat. They tend to go for the neck or jugular and eat very little,
Chart of damage and possible predator:
. http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/w...ng-the-culprit-from-the-crime-scene-evidence/

 

[teach1rusl]

The biggest con to me is the lack of visibility, both for the birds and for me. Sunlight wouldn't get in unless the sun was directly overhead. I like to be able to glance out and see my birds, just for pleasure and to see that everything is fine - you would not be able to do that.

 

[Hholly]

If your coop is secure the only predator you need to worry about would be hawks. You could cover the top with netting like this http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/poultry-netting-72-in-x-50-ft?cm_vc=-10005

 

[teach1rusl]

My neighbors recently bought a 10x10 dog run for their ducks, from TS for $299. It came with a free cover. They ran chicken wire around the lower 24 inches to prevent reach-ins (they learned the hard way to do that), and 2x4 welded wire over the top as a ceiling, below the free cover "roof". Since your chickens will be secured inside at night, that sounds like something that would work for you. Dogs and hawks are really the main predators most folks have to contend with during the day time hours. A skirt is easier to do than all that digging.

 

[trailrider330]

My neighbors recently bought a 10x10 dog run for their ducks, from TS for $299. It came with a free cover. They ran chicken wire around the lower 24 inches to prevent reach-ins (they learned the hard way to do that), and 2x4 welded wire over the top as a ceiling, below the free cover "roof". Since your chickens will be secured inside at night, that sounds like something that would work for you. Dogs and hawks are really the main predators most folks have to contend with during the day time hours. A skirt is easier to do than all that digging.

Thank you. My problem is I need 4-5 separate runs. At $300 a piece, that would cost $1200-1500 just for the pens, not including any hardware cloth. At the price I can get the wood fencing for, I can make all the runs I need for under $200. I would still need to buy about $100 of hardware cloth plus netting for the top, but it is a HUGE savings. I am just trying to make sure my chickens will be safe if I go with this option. Either way, at least I hope this option would be safer than free-ranging, right?